[Rachel Briere]

I've read rumors about protests on these forums when a new Elder Scrolls game is released because the game isn't a copy of the previous one. Are those rumors true? Some criticism is still floating around here, but how severely are Elder Scrolls games criticized when they are released? What should we expect forum activity to be like at and around TES V's release? Will the forums be flooded with extremely excited members, protesting critics, or both? For how long after the release of TES V will the forums be all about TES V's greatness? What about its faults? What could veterans of previous Elder Scrolls releases tell me? I want to know what the forums will be like and for how long.

[Jack]

I've read rumors about protests on these forums when a new Elder Scrolls game is released because the game isn't a copy of the previous one. Are those rumors true? Some criticism is still floating around here, but how severely are Elder Scrolls games criticized when they are released? What should we expect forum activity to be like at and around TES V's release? Will the forums be flooded with extremely excited members, protesting critics, or both? For how long after the release of TES V will the forums be all about TES V's greatness? What about its faults? What could veterans of previous Elder Scrolls releases tell me? I want to know what the forums will be like and for how long.

It pretty much starts off with everyone extremely happy and then everyone gets pissed off when they realize Morrowind is better

[James Shaw]

It pretty much starts off with everyone extremely happy and then everyone gets pissed off when they realize Morrowind is better

Some of the rumors I read were about Daggerfall fans protesting about Morrowind, and the game compared to TES V might be Oblivion.

[Nancy RIP]

You talk about Oblivion like it's a martyr.

I've read rumors about protests on these forums when a new Elder Scrolls game is released because the game isn't a copy of the previous one.

I've heard rumors there are other threads for that crap. What difference does it make?

[Alberto Aguilera]

How would you expect us to know the answer to that question? I don't really see the point of this thread. Seems like instigating to me. But, oh well.
On topic, when TES:V is released, I'm sure the boards will be more active, obviously. When we figure some actual info out, there are bound to be people excited, and there are bound to be people trolling and talking trash about it. Such is with every game, every game forum, and every game community.
:shrug:

[Jennifer Munroe]

I had been lurking on the forums since shortly after Morrowind was released, and I remember there being a bit of animosity from Daggerfall veterans. It never became uncivil, but the tension was palpable. However, the negativity following Oblivion seemed quite a bit more pronounced. What began as united excitement soon descended into divisiveness. One thing I've noticed is that very few of the Daggerfall veterans hang around here anymore.

[Isaac Saetern]

I think anyone who complains about video games not matching up to it's predecessors are..well.. simply morons. It's like everyone first defends the game in the beginning againts anyone who finds it's faults. Then, they start to join the people who bash the game for it's faults and get all pious about being one of the first people to switch to"x" or do "x" or make them change "x". It'll most likely be how it is now, I mean, I'm sure anyone who comes here with a hot head flaming other users will be banned instantaneously so I really dont think there will be too much of a change in our community stance.

[hannaH]

How would you expect us to know the answer to that question? I don't really see the point of this thread. Seems like instigating to me. But, oh well.
On topic, when TES:V is released, I'm sure the boards will be more active, obviously. When we figure some actual info out, there are bound to be people excited, and there are bound to be people trolling and talking trash about it. Such is with every game, every game forum, and every game community.
:shrug:

I expect some people to know because they were here when it happened before. Hungry Donner has been on these forums since before Morrowind was released. I'm curious to know what to expect or what the forums are generally like. Is everything in anarchy when a new Elder Scrolls game is released? Are people happily discussing every new thing they find in the game? How long does it go on for. I want to know what the forums are like are for how long.

[Erin S]

Well being here before FO3 was released, people were pretty ecstatic about it. Usually happens with all games though. :shrug:

[adame]

How would you expect us to know the answer to that question?

Very true, seeing as we don't even know if the Elder Scrolls V will be released right now, we can hardly say how fans will react to it. Still, if I had to make a guess, I'd say that we'll get both people posting about how exited they are to get the new game, and people criticizing every fault they can find in it. No game is ever going to please everyone who plays it, but some tend to be more... vocal about it when THEY are the ones not pleased than others, Bethesda seems to hold the license to two series whose fanbases are like that.

[Mr.Broom30]

I expect some people to know because they were here when it happened before. Hungry Donner has been on these forums since before Morrowind was released. I'm curious to know what to expect or what the forums are generally like. Is everything in anarchy when a new Elder Scrolls game is released? Are people happily discussing every new thing they find in the game? How long does it go on for. I want to know what the forums are like are for how long.

I've been here since 03, on a different account. I've seen quite a lot of hype, but that's the same as all other gaming forums. People will love it, people will mock it, people will say "meh". Pretty much all colors of fanboism will show it's face, and people will troll. With OB, it was pretty bad, a lot of ridiculous threads and post, but again, pretty much the same on any other gaming forum. Blizzards, Bungies, mostly the same things going on when a game is released.
I'd imagine it will be the same here.

[City Swagga]

Once it is announced there will be an increase in activity as people fill the board with their theories of what will be in it and what they hope will be in it.

That will die down again until the new Elderscrolls 5 boards are created and the first lot of gaming magazine previews come out. Then there will be a large amount of posting again, of both the speculation/discussion nature, and 'what class/race/skills are you going to pick' and 'who else can't wait' topics.

After a few months the discussions will die down again. Peaking only sporadically when a dramatically new preview of information is released.

Assuming the game is released in the latter part of the year (October/November) by the January of that year there will be very little discussion as no new information is revealed and everything that people what to say will have been said.

In the months leading up to the release the activity will again grow and grow, and this time it will not quieten. The final set of previews will draw a large crowd who will stick around until the release of the game.

The release date and immediate days after will see the largest numbers of people posting.

Eventually more and more people will become bored with the discussion and move on with their lives, leaving the board entirely. At least until the next game is announced.

That's a rough timeline that you will be looking at.

On the question of the topics of the threads, initially there will probably be a large number of excited posts, with some accompanying sceptical posts. Expect (in the early stages at least) the moderators to try and contain the 'negative' discussions to a single thread. Although this will loosen over time.

There perhaps will be an approximate number of positive and negative threads as previews are released. As the game comes closer to release date the number of hype-boys will increase. This will mean that any dissenting posts will be met by a large number of sledging posts. Also expect 'why are people complaining' threads to pop up fairly regularly, although these will be locked shortly after creation by a moderator.

I predict that there will still be a fair degree of scepticism on the part of people who consider Morrowind to be the better game than Oblivion, as well as people who are fans of roleplaying games in the strict sense of the word (i.e not Larpers who think playing make believe is roleplaying). In fact there may actually be even more, as there are a fair few people who after playing Oblivion for a while recognised its deeply flawed nature, something not immediately obvious. Expect the professional game critics to be among those who suddenly have an epiphany that Oblivion wasn't all that, as they will point out the 'mostly commonly cited problem being the level scaling' which they all conveniently failed to mention in their first reviews.

A lot of the heat will have gone out of the criticism by Bethesda fans, placated in part by what is commonly seen as a step in the right direction by most of those who were deeply critical of Oblivion. But again, depending upon the focus of the initial reviews it will colour the comments. Heavy focus on graphics, soil erosion, patrick stewart, etc in the first previews will earn derision.

Had Elderscrolls 5 started full production immediately after finishing Oblivion, the level of criticism and scepticism would have been significantly higher. People would have been guessing how much further simplified Bethesda would try and make the game and what other RPG aspects they would try and drag out while still maintaining a facade as an RPG.

It is also be dependant upon how well New Vegas performs when it is released this year. Obsidian has much more credibility among RPG fans as a proper RPG developer, unlike Bethesda who are seen as action game developers who chuck in an RPG system cause they used to like make RPGs.

If the priority upon the traditional RPG aspects such as choices and consequences, and their emphasis upon interfaction relations go down well then Elderscrolls 5 will be judged against a higher bar. Fallout 3 was meant to be the cream of the crop as far as Bethesda's quest design was meant to be. When people compare the two they'll also make judgements and form expectations about Elderscrolls 5's quest design, expectations that may fall short if the strength of quest design is not played up in the previews and interviews.

One final word of warning, don't post any criticism in the days leading up to and immediately following the release. For the Elderscrolls fans...ur, new Elderscrolls fans starting from Oblivion, any criticism of the games is taken as a personal sleight and respond vigourously. This invites the moderators to lock the thread/delete the critical post and ban the poster for 'inciting flames', while the hypeboy who posted the flame gets off scot free as they are standing up for Bethesda.

Also remember that the hypeboys will be from a new generation again, those who were 16 years old when Oblivion was released will be 22 by the time the next game was released and subsequently will be much less robust and irrational in their defense of their game. Instead those that were only 10 at the time of the release of Oblivion will be the new 16 year olds.

After that you should migrate to the mods forum.

[Cartoon]

I'm curious how Morrowind was received after Daggerfall. Did it get critizised on account of beeing too small etc.

Most likely

[Lilit Ager]

Had Elderscrolls 5 started full production immediately after finishing Oblivion, the level of criticism and scepticism would have been significantly higher. People would have been guessing how much further simplified Bethesda would try and make the game and what other RPG aspects they would try and drag out while still maintaining a facade as an RPG.

How do you know that's not the case already? In fact, I'm sure they started working on ideas for TES:V as soon as Oblivion was launched. They have different teams for these things.

Anyway, Syv, Morrowind wasn't hugely criticized. Morrowind was pretty much the perfect RPG. Not a lot of bad things to say about it.

[Neliel Kudoh]

It's normal that when a game is announced, close to release, released, etc, that more people will start pouring into the forum, either new people come to talk about the new game or old-timers with a reason to come back. Whether you regard this as some sort of chaos is up to you.

Also normal when a game is released, some people will love it, some will hate it. Same as every game ever.

[Marcin Tomkow]

It really depends on what kind of information is release. I wasn't here for the Daggerfall/Morrowind transition, but I was around in 2004 when Oblivion was announced. There was uniform excitement and several webpages by prominent members to track every little bit of detail. Screenshots were heavily scrutinized for any piece of information. When the E3 videos were released it was as if someone had given us the Holy Grail. Then, when they started releasing concrete information, specifically about what would be taken out... then things got ugly. Huge multi-part threads about crossbows and thrown weapons, the nine divines, the genericness of the setting. It got absolutely brutal. Many were banned and many were silenced. The developers stopped regular posting. Many old timers were shut out. The entire board shifted in tone... except for the lore forum, which was thankfully unaffected and didn't have limitations imposed on it.

[ILy- Forver]

It really depends on what kind of information is release. I wasn't here for the Daggerfall/Morrowind transition, but I was around in 2004 when Oblivion was announced. There was uniform excitement and several webpages by prominent members to track every little bit of detail. Screenshots were heavily scrutinized for any piece of information. When the E3 videos were released it was as if someone had given us the Holy Grail. Then, when they started releasing concrete information, specifically about what would be taken out... then things got ugly. Huge multi-part threads about crossbows and thrown weapons, the nine divines, the genericness of the setting. It got absolutely brutal. Many were banned and many were silenced. The developers stopped regular posting. Many old timers were shut out. The entire board shifted in tone... except for the lore forum, which was thankfully unaffected and didn't have limitations imposed on it.

The main reason people were angry is because the situation was a lot like Fable. Lots of promises were made ("Just look at that Radiant AI!" "Wow those NPC's really make good conversation with each other." "Look at those shadows!"). Oblivion was supposed to be bigger, better, and more of everything. And then the cuts started rolling out. Sorry guys, we just can't do dynamic shadows. Sorry guys, we just can't get Radiant AI to stop killing each other with rakes. Sorry guys, we decided to cut this and that skills, but its okay because what's left is going to blow you away!

There was much gnashing of teeth. I think if we get TES V as it was described people will be much less critical, at least as compared to Oblivion.

And when it comes to Daggerfall fans with Morrowind's release; some people received it rather coldly, perceiving it as a dumbing down of a grand and huge series, while others enjoyed the depth and complexity of the world. There was tension, but it never turned out like it did with Oblivion. Not by a long shot.

[Dominic Vaughan]

People will love it, people will hate it, people will fight over it, people will die over it.

[Eduardo Rosas]

I can't see there being a big "It's not enough like Oblivion" faction. I, for one, have confidence in Bethesda to have the sense of which way the pendulum needs to swing with the series and what simple additions or subtractions need to be added or subtracted.

[Milad Hajipour]

I think this is a pretty good summary :goodjob:

[Kyra]

I can't see there being a big "It's not enough like Oblivion" faction. I, for one, have confidence in Bethesda to have the sense of which way the pendulum needs to swing with the series and what simple additions or subtractions need to be added or subtracted.

I hear that. Well, aside from the "confidence" part. From reading the numerous posts around here I don't think there will be any significant percentage of people that will lament changes from Oblivion (unless they go back to Morrowind style magic casting of course!). I can see a continuation of the Morrowind/Oblivion conflict, only with TESV instead of Oblivion, as if TESIV never existed, as it looks like everyone still fondly remembers and mods the hell out of Morrowind.

I did read somewhere in an interview with Todd about addressing the complaints with Morrowind and how they "went back to their roots" so to speak with Oblivion. You can actually see this in the game. The only thing is, IMO, they brought back the wrong elements from Arena and Daggerfall and not the stuff people actually liked. For example, fast travel was basically required because of the huge worlds, but is was implemented totally differently. I assume people wanted the huge world that required fast travel, not fast travel as a feature just because it was so awesome or something. In another example, the Argonians and Khajiit were given a more Daggerfall like appearance, not only because of programming laziness but also because there was a complaint that the beast races couldn't wear boots and helmets, and in the process were stripped of all their uniqueness. Instead of making shinguards and specialty helmets for Argonians and Khajiits we got re-skinned humans. One idea that circulated around the forum back way before the release of Oblivion was how it was kind of boring that you always were some huge hero saving the world, and wouldn't it be cool if instead you were part of a process with other NPCs that allowed the world to be saved, or even if there wasn't some major crisis at all? The big boss fight at the end was so tired! In fact, it might even be cool if you assisted the "true" hero of the storyline (because the most fun in the ES series is going out and doing your own thing and living another life)! And so in Oblivion, we got you basically going on the "save the world" quest while being denied the final boss fight in favor of some NPC who didn't do anything else the entire game except steal your fame.

Unfortunately I can see this happening again for Oblivion. The developers could end up wrongly reading the communities wishes. Follow me for a second... So everyone basically liked the Dark Brotherhood questline, right? "Well, they probably liked assassinations just because killing people is so awesome." Hence, we get three different assassin guilds and none are as good as Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood story line, and the developers say "Well, we listened to the community, I don't know what's wrong." People say the huge forested world, while pretty, wasn't really that interesting. So instead of getting landscapes with varied terrain we get a huge uniform tundra, or jungle, or something. People complained about not having the nine divines or a religious faction, so instead of getting something like in Daggerfall or Morrowind, we get a Fighter's Guild with churches. One of the biggest mods for Oblivion was the open cities mod, and so we could see even smaller cities in TESV as Bethesda makes them all part of the main gameworld and smallness is kind of required to keep them within a reasonable framerate... because, hey, people want their open cities, right? People say they were disappointed in the main storyline, so Bethesda takes that as meaning they just wanted to fight the final boss, and so we get basically Oblivion Part II where you fight the giant demon at the end and the heir looks on.

Anyways, I guess I do have some confidence, just by the virtue of me being on this forum and looking forward to an announcement. I just hope they're able to discern what people actually want. Barring that, they should just really ignore all opinions. Were they heavily into public opinions before Morrowind? Maybe Bethesda should just do their own thing if they can't read correctly into an often disjointed public.

[Nitol Ahmed]

It really depends on what kind of information is release. I wasn't here for the Daggerfall/Morrowind transition, but I was around in 2004 when Oblivion was announced. There was uniform excitement and several webpages by prominent members to track every little bit of detail. Screenshots were heavily scrutinized for any piece of information. When the E3 videos were released it was as if someone had given us the Holy Grail. Then, when they started releasing concrete information, specifically about what would be taken out... then things got ugly. Huge multi-part threads about crossbows and thrown weapons, the nine divines, the genericness of the setting. It got absolutely brutal. Many were banned and many were silenced. The developers stopped regular posting. Many old timers were shut out. The entire board shifted in tone... except for the lore forum, which was thankfully unaffected and didn't have limitations imposed on it.

I'm glad I wasn't here for this. I had no real expectations for Oblivion and I was totally amazed by the game. I still remain amazed at many of the things in the game.

[Jesus Duran]

I've loved each game. But each one is slightly less enormous and deep than the last. I think that's where all the criticism comes in. Oblivion was a solid game, but it didn't have the feeling morrowind did for me. I liked Morrowind more than Daggerfall too, interestingly. Something about the culture and setting was perfect for me.

[Niisha]

I'm glad I wasn't here for this. I had no real expectations for Oblivion and I was totally amazed by the game. I still remain amazed at many of the things in the game.

The same is true for me as well. Oblivion is my first Elder Scrolls game and it did what no other RPG had ever done for me.

[Bedford White]

The same is true for me as well. Oblivion is my first Elder Scrolls game and it did what no other RPG had ever done for me.

Well, same for us veterans, but it was Morrowind, and not Oblivion. Morrowind was just revolutionary. It more than one regard.